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This real-time brain scanner can teach you an instrument faster

There is a reason that (some) people play Guitar Hero: learning a real instrument is hard. But a new brain-scanning system may be able to help you make the leap to playing actual music.

Brain Automated Chorales (or BACh for short), a new system developed at Tufts University, teaches inexperienced piano players more efficiently by scanning their brains while they play, and adjusting the difficulty of lessons based on how they are performing.

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The team behind the system found that subjects were able to play pieces significantly better than via traditional teaching methods -- even when they'd only used it for fifteen minutes. "We found that learners played with significantly increased accuracy and speed in the brain-based adaptive task compared to our control condition," researchers researchers said. "They could play with faster speed with BACh compared to a control where they learned the way they normally would".

BACh uses functional near-infrared spectroscopy, a non-invasive brain monitoring method, to measure oxygen levels in the prefrontal cortex, an area linked to planning, memory and learning new tasks. When an individual is processing or recalling information, oxygen levels increase;. BACh measures these levels and adjusts difficulty accordingly. If you're stuck, for example, the system will help you practice and will only serve up new information when you can handle it. There are downsides though, including the size -- the equipment is roughly as big as a couple of stacked shoeboxes.

Volunteers played more correct notes, missed fewer notes and made fewer errors when using the system. They also played faster, had fewer gaps between notes and a higher BPM. Other systems, including some commercially available video games, use a similar method to just how you are playing in real time, and change a lesson to reflect your ability -- but with the obvious absence of a direct link to the brain.

The team hope that the technology will also be applied to a range of skills including maths, reading, and foreign languages, and teach the system to monitor specific emotions -- so if you're frustrated, happy, or bored it will be able to adjust the lesson with great precision.